Sounders FC will make more seats available at Qwest

Sounders FC will remove the green tarp over seats in the south end zone of Qwest Field’s lower bowl, making nearly 4,000 more seats available to meet demand for tickets.

The seats will be available beginning with the June 28 match against Colorado. The new stadium configuration will be the same as the one used for the inaugural Major League Soccer game in March when 32,523 fans attended.

Sixty-five percent of the expanded seating will go to partial season-ticket packages, according to the team.

The team has averaged 28,789 fans for its four other home MLS games. The new seating configuration will not be available for games May 30 against Columbus and June 13 against San Jose.

Sounders FC is opening all seating areas of the stadium for the Chelsea FC and FC Barcelona friendlies in July and August. Capacity for those matches will be 67,000.

The team is selling nine-game partial season-ticket packages, which include the team’s final six MLS games (beginning with the July 11 match against Houston) plus tickets for Chelsea, Barcelona and the MLS Cup title game in November.